Forum:Should we make comic links use a different style?
This project is now completed. Template:GG_link and Template:YG link are implemented and used in most places. I didn't change some of the older talk pages that used many links with no text, and there are certainly some links I didn't find because I couldn't search for them. Because of the inability to search, there will be no on-going automated monitoring. The style guide was updated. Argadi 09:39, 9 August 2008 (UTC) Instead of letting links to comics look like any old external link, we could make changes. We could and maybe change the color to (to match the Heterodyne favicon for the Girl Genius web site) or (to match Agatha's hair) (or any color other than white or blue). This would require a new template for comic links, and editing all existing links (and right now I don't know a way to change the color for automatically numbered links), so please distinguish between "Hideous idea" and "Nifty idea but I'm not willing to help with edits" when you comment. Argadi 19:03, 1 August 2008 (UTC) :I kind of like this idea. But if the template is changed, why would each individual page also need to be changed? --mnenyver 23:02, 1 August 2008 (UTC) :: Unfortunately, GG_url just generates the URL (it is reasonably named). The only way I know of to change the text color is to change other parts of the link—see the code in my example above. (If you can find a way to make the change inside of GG_url I would be very happy to learn a new trick. I am still a wiki novice.) Argadi 23:41, 1 August 2008 (UTC) : It's a good idea, if we can get a template going, but the specific colors suggested are almost impossible to read on a white background, at least on my display. Dark goldenrod is a goldish color that shows up all right... -Acacia 23:58, 1 August 2008 (UTC) : We'd need a second field piped in, like "linktext", and we could just include all the HTML markup in the template. We would then need a bot to go through and change every reference to the template, though, as you pointed out. If someone else doesn't jump on this, I'll put it on my list of things to do. --mnenyver 01:22, 2 August 2008 (UTC) :So, is this is what the bot would do? :* If it sees 11111111|text}}, leave it alone. (This would be the new form, don't change again.) :* If it sees , (any amount of white space before the ] leave it alone. (Unless we figure out how to duplicate the default of numbered links with the new template. I don't like this style and think it should be eliminated—it is easily confused with references.) :* GG_url outside of [], leave it alone. (These should be edited by hand to be nicer links.) :* If it sees text convert it to : I'd be interested in seeing the code for the bot. What language are bots written in? Argadi 10:14, 2 August 2008 (UTC) :: I edited my previous comment to add reasons for the cases. :: It might be better to use a new name. (Maybe GG_link instead of GG_url since it replaces the wiki link mechanism ([]) rather than just generating an URL.) The benefit for a new name is we can then search for the old name and find just the cases the bot couldn't handle so they can be hand edited. :: I don't know how easy it is to generate bots that fully understand wiki syntax, but template:GG_comic_date_link uses GG_url and is a pain to edit correctly by hand. Care needs to be taken in editing that template, and any other template that uses GG_url. Argadi 11:58, 2 August 2008 (UTC) OK, as you probably noticed I created Template:GG_link. It shows up on the main page, in the list of expletives, cast lists, and chronologies. The first case in the bot algorithm I listed above doesn't exist. It looks like , and if you forget the second parameter it shows up as . (If you see } that's not what I expected. It's a bug, I'll work on it. Fixed.) If you want to tweak the style (or want to revert to the previous style), just edit that template. Argadi 13:35, 2 August 2008 (UTC) I think it would be nice to add a Heterodyne sigil like to the links, but is that overdoing it? Obviously not that one, something like Girl Genius web facivon. We could use our favicon (I tried but it came out , so 14:10, 2 August 2008 (UTC) Sorry, was AFK for a few days. Only comment I have at this point is that I would (have) prefer(red) that edits of this type (that only convert link with GG_url to GG_link) be marked as "minor". ⚙Zarchne 07:12, 4 August 2008 (UTC) : Yes, they should. Yesterday I was just struggling with documentation errors (and I didn't get it quite right -- someone needed to fix Zeetha for me) and the documentation didn't mention 'minor' at all. At your prompting I found more documentation and will mark changes minor. (After I figure out whether I should try to handle the Zeetha case, or if it's just bad style to nest links.) Argadi 09:18, 4 August 2008 (UTC) Well, I'm late to the discussion (no internet at home yet, as I've just moved), but I think it looks snazzy. The template makes it use-able for someone coding-impaired like myself, so I'm all for this. (Yes, I know, we've already begun switching over. But I thought I'd through out my 2c anyway.) -Evaneyreddeman 15:17, 4 August 2008 (UTC) : Thank you for the comment, I'm glad you like how it looks. Argadi 08:47, 6 August 2008 (UTC) All uses of GG_url are gone, and I changed that template to display the date of the comic in a link in case someone tries to use it. (It would probably be better to delete it.) Now to work on the explicit links. Those seem to be harder to search for. Argadi 08:47, 6 August 2008 (UTC) Yahoo link Now, can we do the same thing for Yahoo! Groups (girlgenius) links as well? I.e., for whatever color links look good for http://groups.yahoo.com/group/girlgenius/message/57617 ? (Maybe green?) ⚙Zarchne 02:45, 5 August 2008 (UTC) : It wouldn't be hard (OK, it's done: ), but is there any way to search for them to do a replace? When I search for "yahoo" I only got a few hits—it looks like search doesn't find matches on link URLs. (Didn't someone stop by from Wikia to say they could help us? They might know how to search for the links.) Argadi 08:34, 5 August 2008 (UTC)